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I was wonder how the images are ached on the Bazzer Eyes & the Ron Gigian South Bound Masterpiece kite sails. Are they pained on ...or is the ripstop color dyed to achieve the fade ...light to dark colors? If painted or dyed ...as opposed to separate colored panels ...how durable & permanent are the images? Both style Masterpiece Series kites look awesome but I'm not interested in buying a kite for show! I buy kites to fly them. I've seen quite a few Bazzer Eyes being flown ...and even briefly flown a 5-kite Bazzer Eyes stack but never thought to look closely at them to examine the method of their production. I've never seen a Ron Gibian South Bound other than in photos on the forum. They truly are works of art ...both!

if it is a bazzer kite than it is painted.....lots of his kites are.....Ron's kite probably has painted sections..

Painted kites will last just fine with one rule: NEVER FOLD THE PAINTED AREA.....always make sure that the section that is painted is rolled gently, or kept flat.....if you fold it you will allow the paint to crack and then it can start to come off....i have 15 year old kites that Scott Hampton painted (he has always painted his kites and banners) that are still holding up great....

The Bazzer eyes has a lot of air brushing, I use mine quit a bit so there is paint being removed esp. at the verticals. I'll have to take a look at Southbound, I would say the sun and around the white to yellow is airbrushed, not sure about the circles/honeycomb like areas on the wings. How did you know I was selling those kite? The Ron Bohart Revs are off the charts! No Paint there.

nylon is easy to airbrush-paint w/spray cans from the floral industry, use several layers, not a once over thick coating. My guess is if you have a kite with tonal values on it, it's made of nylon. Bazzer and S.Hampton are two of the more recognized artists in this arena

Icarex sail cloth is done with acid etch dyes and then pressure/heat set in an autoclave. It is truly permanent until the cloth itself fails, 2 or 3 thousand hours later! Harold Ames (kitesquid) kitebuilderDOTcom is the expert on this technique, combined with no-sew bonding.

I just sold a custom vented eyes because it looked weak after a few sessions of abuse, but it was opaque white on a black sail (bought for backlighting, utterly failed visually). White on Black? What was I thinking?

On the other hand I have owned a Sizzle flame kite by Bazzer, it has stood the test of time very well indeed. Flown hard, rolled up wet, loaned and abused by many. No loss of color other than fading by UV after six years.

Transitional colors, tonal value & shading are always going to be challenging for the kite builder. How much art and how much permanence do you want?, what are you willing to sacrifice?

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